Soulless
by Mikells
Summary: In the lull following the Bount incident in the Soul Society, Ichigo Kurosaki finds himself strangely suspicious of the complete lack of Hollow activity in the World of the Living. But when Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki arrive with a wounded Tōshirō Hitsugaya, suddenly the reason is revealed, and it's more deadly than anything Ichigo could have imagined.
1. Preface

Preface

**Hollow  
**_Definition: (n) A corrupted spirit, transformed into a monster through means of internal torment. Hollows prey other souls, going even so far as to devour the living. They prefer victims with high spiritual energy._

**Soul Reaper**

_Definition: (n) A being from the spirit world trained to purify Hollows and ease the passage of souls into the spirit world. Soul Reapers are divided into thirteen squads, each headed by a Captain and Lieutenant._

_**Queue "Chu Bura" by Kelun**_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Ichigo Kurosaki lay back on his bed and let out a heavy sigh. Free from chores for the rest of the day, he decided then and there that a good old fashioned slacking off was called for. He had no school homework or assignments due soon, his younger sister Karin was off playing soccer with her friends in the field, their father Isshin was in the clinic helping mend a broken leg on a Chihuahua, and Yuzu, Ichigo's youngest sister, was likely to be out shopping. And, strange as it was after he had grown accustomed to her presence, there was still no sign of Rukia.

Rukia. Just the thought of her in such an innocuous way dredged up the memories of how much his life had changed since he'd met that small, yet much older girl from the Soul Society. Everything had been more or less normal before she'd insinuated herself into his life. Well, as normal as things could have been for someone in his situation.

Back then all he'd had to deal with was the constant guilt of his mother's death, the fights his father always started by throwing punches whenever Ichigo least expected it, and two younger sisters who were always of two minds about anything. On top of that, he occasionally helped out his father at the clinic and then walked the streets visiting some of the souls he knew and talking with them for a bit to ease their suffering.

Back then, he'd been a consistently average scoring student at Karakura High. Back then he'd had a few friends; Chad, Tatsuke, Mizuiro, Keigo. Back then …

Gah! There was no point thinking about the back-thens. They were plenty, and they were no more. Now, he occasionally fell behind in school work and household chores because of his Soul Reaper responsibilities. Now, he had more or less accepted that he wasn't to blame for his mother's death. He was more adept at fighting off his father—not to say that he had ever taken it lying down before—and was growing even more annoyed with Isshin's antics. Now, he didn't give his sisters as much attention as he should. He knew he should.

And he had more friends. He didn't spend as much time with Tatsuke, Mizuiro and Keigo as he used to. But he had grown closer to Orihime Inoue, who, before, hadn't really spoken much to him in the years they'd known each other. His friendship with Chad had only deepened when the large brick of a teenager had begun to perceive the spirit world as well and acquired his own abilities to help fight the Hollows, much as Orihime had. And stranger yet, he had an on-again-off-again, rivalry-based friendship with the reclusive Quincy, Uryū Ishida.

But were those upsides worth all the trouble he had been in, all the pain he had been through, since becoming a Soul Reaper? After months at the job, Ichigo still wasn't sure how to answer that. He couldn't count on one hand any more how many times he'd been close to death.

All because of Rukia's decision. All because of Ichigo's impulsiveness. A quick thrust of a sword, an outpouring of spiritual energy; that was all it had taken to change his life. That was all it had taken to turn him from a semi-normal human with the occasional reclusive streak to a human substitute for a Soul Reaper with reclusive tendencies around every corner and behind every door.

He'd been so cocky at first. How big of a fool was he, now that he looked back on it. Challenging two full-fledged Soul Reapers—a squad Lieutenant and his Captain—when they had come to the world of the living to take Rukia back to the Soul Society to be executed for giving him her powers. At least, that was how they'd justified it at the time. Renji Abari had very nearly killed him until Ichigo had turned the fight around in his favour. His _zanpakut__ō_'s transformation completely taking the relatively new Soul Reaper completely off-guard and giving the savage, spiked blade the chance to go slicing through his shoulder muscle.

He hadn't even seen Byakuya Kuchiki coming. He'd been that fast. One second, the placid, expressionless squad captain had been standing ten meters away, watching him. A split second later, he was standing behind him, his _zanpakut__ō_ seemingly untouched despite the through-and-through stab wound in Ichigo's back. If not for Rukia's intervention, he'd have been finished. If not for Kisuke Urahara's timely appearance after the departure of the Soul Reapers, he'd have died.

Pretty much immediately after his recovery from that, Urahara had separated him from his body and severed his Soul Chain as a brutal form of training to regain the Soul Reaper powers he'd lost when Byakuya had run him through. Ichigo had almost turned into a Hollow because of that, but had regained his powers … and then some.

And then he and his friends had arrogantly invaded the Soul Society itself to stop Rukia's execution. A noble goal, and Ichigo had to admit to himself that it was perhaps one of the few times he'd had a selfless reason for picking the fights that he had there. Powerful as he had become, he'd overwhelmed the Eleventh Squad Third Seat Ikkaku Madarame and Sixth Squad lieutenant Renji Abarai in their rematch—almost killing Renji in the process. He'd then beat the Eleventh's captain, the beast-like power machine Kenpachi Zaraki into submission before learning his Bankai and rescuing Rukia at the last minute. He'd battled Byakuya again and nearly killed him, and then had his ass handed to him by the traitorous Sōsuke Aizen.

More recently, though, he'd had to deal with the Bounts; a clan of humans with the ability to feed off souls to grant themselves eternal life, the Bounts had broken their own sacred taboo of feeding on living humans so they could gain immense power in order to destroy the Soul Society. Ichigo and his friends, along with their new allies within the Soul Society, had systematically destroyed the Bounts one by one until only their leader, Jin Kariya, remained. And then, just as Kariya was about to use himself as the trigger to detonate devastatingly powerful devices dotted all over the Seireitei, Ichigo had cut him down like the rabid dog he was.

Every single instance had nearly cost him his life. Every single instance had forced him to reevaluate the decisions that had taken him to that point. Every single instance had him thinking about the friends he had made in Orihime, Chad, Rukia, Uryū. Even his strange rivalry with Kenpachi, and his standoffish relationship with Rukia's older brother, Byakuya. Not a single person who had touched him in some way had been missed in those times of introspection before what he had thought at the time as inevitable death.

So was being a Soul Reaper worth all that danger? Ichigo couldn't say.

But despite his suspicions, the relative peace of Karakura town of late was welcome. A week without having to deal with Hollow incursions, or traitorous Soul Reapers trying to have his friends killed, or insane experiment-children of the Soul Society trying to get revenge on their creators was exactly what he needed.

The stuffed lion toy sitting on the floor in front of his closet door, looking up at him with its arms crossed and brow creased over its beady eyes made him sigh.

Kon. If he could just get rid of that annoying little mod soul, everything would be just perfect for the rest of the day. If Yuzu were home, he thought, he could just leave Kon in her room to do with as she pleased. Since she didn't know that the mod soul had possession of the toy, she unwittingly tormented him all the time by dressing him up in frilly or lacy girl clothes.

He was pretty harmless, as mod souls went. The three that had helped against the Bounts were more impressive. They actually had useful attributes—even when stuffed into stuffed toys. Kon was … Kon. The word might as well mean "useless" for all it described him as. The only use he had was as a substitute soul whenever Ichigo had to abandon his body to fight Hollows and couldn't risk leaving his body lying around. And since Kon's modification included enhanced leg power, it meant that Ichigo's body could get away from battle zones all that much faster. That was it. And Kon hated to do it as much as Ichigo hated having him do it.

Yep. Such was the life of the human substitute Soul Reaper, average student, big brother and capable son known as Ichigo Kurosaki.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Go away," Ichigo said suddenly, startling Kon in the process of scratching felt claws against a cotton rump. The lion turned around and glared at him for a moment before hopping over and launching himself up onto the bed where Ichigo lay.

"What's your problem?" he asked his warden, frowning. "You're just lying around doing nothing. What if there's a Hollow attacking some poor soul somewhere? What if my poor, sweet Orihime is out there somewhere, bleeding on the sidewalk because she was caught off guard?" The panic in his voice hitched it a couple of octaves, and he started chewing on those felt claws with a toothless mouth.

Ichigo turned his head to give the mod soul a blank look and then snorted. "I don't sense any Hollows," he said plainly. "And my Combat Pass hasn't gone off. And if, for some strange reason, there was a Hollow attack that hadn't alerted the pass, Chad's on patrol tonight."

"Well," Kon started, undeterred, "that's just about the lamest excuse to sit on your butt and do nothing. Since when do you pass on the opportunity to kill Hollows?"

"I'm not _sitting_ on my butt," Ichigo replied smartly. "Now leave me alone before I decide to let Yuzu have her way with you on a permanent basis."

Quick as a flash, Kon's paws came up and the brow inverted. "No! No, no, no, no, _no_! Absolutely not!" he rambled. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you? To your good friend and trusted mod soul, Kon? Right, buddy? Right?"

Ichigo split a grin. "Don't tempt me, _buddy_."

"Rukia!" the stuffed toy wailed plaintively. "Oh, my Rukia! My sweet Rukia. She wouldn't let anything happen to her little king. You"—he stabbed a single claw through the air toward Ichigo—"are so very lucky she's not here right now to see you bullying her cuddly little knight. Because then I'd have to embarrass you by tossing you out through the window! But no"—he stretched out the word for emphasis—"she had to stay in the Soul Society and leave her poor Kon here with the likes of you."

"Not a bad idea, now that I think about it." And without warning, Ichigo grabbed Kon by his outstretched paw and lobbed him through the open window down to the street outside. His cry of surprise died off quickly. Ichigo didn't even hear him land, soft as he was.

Alone, Ichigo began to contemplate the meaning of the lack of excitement that had descended over Karakura Town. With Hollows nowhere to be seen for days, when they'd been nearly a daily occurrence until recently, he didn't know quite what to make of it. Perhaps Sōsuke Aizen, former head of one of the Soul Reaper Court Guard Squads and now a traitor in exile in the Hollow world of Heuco Mundo, had something to do with it. After all, he was working with the Hollows now. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that he was holding them back in order to launch a massive offensive at some point later.

Then again, how much power could even a captain have over all of those Menos Grandé he'd seen when Aizen had left the Soul Society. Surely, they would never trust even a former Soul Reaper amongst their midst and seek to eliminate him at any point.

Ichigo decided not to think too much on that. He was still sore about the fact that his _bankai_ had been utterly useless against Aizen. He had assumed that Byakuya was one of their strongest, and his _bankai_ had completely overwhelmed even him. But when he had later turned that against Aizen to stop him harming Rukia, the traitor had simply brushed the blade aside like it was a fly one would idly swat. It had been no threat to him. How had he been allowed to become that powerful without anyone noticing it? Even the other captains had been surprised.

Frankly, it still rankled that he had been unable to stop the man from escaping into Heuco Mundo. It was yet another stake to shove into the ground that was his inefficiencies as a Soul Reaper. Just one more. What was one more on a list so long?

But then, there was the disturbing possibility that the reason the Hollows weren't attacking the World of the Living was because they were decimating the Soul Society, laying waste to the people Ichigo had once, but no longer, considered enemies. How would he feel about that? After all, there were many things about the Soul Society he didn't like. He trampled on their laws freely and without remorse. But, that said, he had great respect for some of the Soul Reapers there.

Renji, Byakuya, Ikkaku, Hitsugaya, Rangiku just to name a few. Hanataro, even, had proved to be something of a friend during his infiltration to stop Rukia's execution, and again during the Bount incident.

He would feel sad about it, was the answer. Despite the faults of the place, there were many good things about it. What would Orihime say? Never let the bad things about a place or person drown out the good things about them.

He smiled, pushed himself up out of bed, and opened his door to see Yuzu standing there, a bag of sweets in one hand and her other clasped in the hand of the girl standing by her side. The other girl had long orange hair that hung half over her shoulder. Even at the age of fifteen, she had a body that was envied by most girls at their school, and admired by the boys. Ichigo's friend Keigo was one of those boys. And a girl in their class, Chizuru, was constantly being fought off by Tatsuki every time she tried to make a move on the redhead. Her large, expressive, grey-blue eyes matched the smile on her face and she held a triple-scoop ice cream in her free hand.

"Ichigo," she said, her cheeks flushing slightly. She stuck out her tongue and licked at the stacked scooping of different ice cream flavours from the cone all the way to the top, and then smacked her lips and sighed. "Have I ever told you how much I love ice cream?"

"No kidding," he said blandly, eyeing it off as though it was going to topple any second and stain all over the carpet. In truth, that was about as likely as hell was to freeze over. It was true that Orihime was known to be a little clutsy at times, but when it came to sweet foods, there was never a chance of it being dropped or slipping from her grip.

In fact, Ichigo suspected that even if the triple-scoop splattered all over the floor right that instant, Orihime would be on her knees in the next instant to lick it all up. She was funny that way

"What's up?"

"Oh," the redhead started, still blushing. "Not too much. Uryū is downstairs now introducing himself to your dad. He'll be right up.

Yuzu pushed past him into the room with the other girl in tow and the two of them sat down on the edge of Ichigo's bed. Orihime promptly took the topmost scoop off the stack in her mouth all at once. "Want some?" she offered half-heartedly. Then she shuddered with the sudden brainfreeze.

"I'll pass," Ichigo said quickly. He turned to Yuzu with a raised eyebrow. "You're staying?"

The smaller girl nodded, grinning. "Just until your other friend comes up. Secret club business should remain secret, I guess. But until then I don't mind spending time with Orihime."

"Well," another voice came from the door at precisely the right moment, "then allow this secret meeting to begin, shall we?" Ichigo turned back to the door to see Uryū standing just beyond. He was wearing the school uniform, his dark hair parted in the middle and hanging at both sides of his face like curtains. Squared glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose and, as Ichigo watched, he pushed them further up with a finger before entering the room without an invitation.

"Excuse me?" He demanded. "Just go and invite yourself in, why don't you!"

"I believe I just did," Uryū replied heatedly. He gave Ichigo one of those half-interested looks of his that told him that he hadn't really thought something he'd said was that important a thing to fuss over. It probably wasn't. It all depended on one's perspective.

"I'll go make some cookies!" Yuzu declared with all the enthusiasm only a kid her age could express. Ichigo let her go without a word, and she shut the door behind her.

"Chad?"

"Patrolling the park. Apparently, he couldn't stretch out his homework long enough. What's your excuse? Wouldn't you ordinarily be chomping at the bit to get out there and look for some Hollows?" Uryū's attitude annoyed Ichigo, and he let him know it with a glare … which was received with a smile.

They talked about trivial things for a while, knowing that at any moment, Ichigo's sister could return with a tray of cookies and glasses of milk and hear something that she ought not to. Ichigo was certain he'd been able to keep his Soul Reaper alter ego from his family thus far, though there had been close calls when Hollows had attacked his sisters and he'd had to save them—Karin could see him in his Soul Reaper form. No doubt, she had to think that odd. But since he was still alive, Ichigo reasoned that Karin probably had not made the distinction that he hadn't been there in body.

When Yuzu returned, it was with a plate piled high with shaped cookies and four glasses of milk. She stayed for a little while and talked about school with Orihime while Ichigo pretended to talk about homework tasks with Uryū. After she was finished, she bade them all goodnight and left the room, closing the door behind her again.

"Finally," Ichigo grumbled. Orihime giggled. Uryū pushed his spectacles up his nose again with a grunt. "So … tell me what you know."

"What we …" Orihime trailed off with a look to the bespectacled boy. She shrugged, and then turned back to look Ichigo in the eye with one of the most serious expressions he had seen on her. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me something, Ichigo."

Frowning, Ichigo replied, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Uryū started, "I haven't sensed the spiritual pressure of any Hollows lately. I know I've lost my Quincy abilities, but I'm still quite able to sense Hollows and other presences. But I haven't sensed a thing other than the pressures of you, Chad and Orihime. We haven't even been visited by any Soul Reapers."

"Isn't that strange, Ichigo?" Orihime asked. She sipped from her glass of milk and chomped down on half a cookie in a single bite with a satisfied moan. "I mean … since you became a Soul Reaper, when was the last time you went this long without any Hollows attacking?"

"You're right," Ichigo admitted. He tapped his chin with a finger and downed the rest of his milk. He hadn't touched the cookies—not because he didn't like them, but because he didn't feel like having any. Orihime would, no doubt, have his share.

And then regret it later when the sugar rush hit.

Ichigo almost smiled at that thought.

"I've been thinking of going to Urahara Shop just to see if Mister Hat-and-Clogs knows what's going on."

"Hmm," Uryū responded. "He _does_ seem to know a lot."

"Maybe they've given up," Orihime offered hopefully. It was childish hope, but Ichigo had to admit his own guilt at occasionally hoping such a thing. Hunting Hollows was an obligation he had been pressed into after accepting his powers. Rukia had drilled it into him.

"_You can't pick and choose! You're in it or you're not. You can't just save the souls you see being attacked in front of you. If you're going to become a Soul Reaper, you're going to have to save them no matter who they are or what they mean to you."_

But on the other hand, his suspicious nature wasn't fooled by this one bit. A lack of Hollow sightings for a whole week could only mean trouble was brewing. Whether it was Aizen and his co-traitors or just some great big-wig Hollow pulling strings, it wasn't going to be good. Though, a lack of Hollows didn't mean his job was nullified. He was still obligated to perform _konso_ on the Wholes that he came across that needed that extra push to make it to the Soul Society.

In fact, considering how long he'd been on the job and how terribly he'd acted to some of those Wholes at the start, he thought he'd made a lot of progress in that regard.

"Doubtful," Uryū said with a grunt. "Evil doesn't stop for lunch."

Orihime's shoulders slumped and she picked up another cookie to munch on. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "It was a silly thing to think."

Ichigo chuckled. "Wishing for a few moments peace isn't a silly thing," he said. "Is it lost on either of you that, experiencing such a peaceful time that we are, we're trying to find out why instead of enjoying it?" They both nodded without a word and munched in silence. "What's wrong with me?" he exclaimed.

"Would you like me to get my list?" Uryū offered.

Ichigo stared at him. From his blank expression, Ichigo couldn't tell if the Quincy was taking a shot at him in earnest or if he was trying to be funny. Considering how the two of them got on in the time they'd known each other, it could have been either. After all, despite the fact that he despised Soul Reapers, Uryū Ishida had shown genuine concern for both Ichigo and Rukia during their invasion of the Seireitei and the Bount's invasion of it a month later.

"Uryū!" Orihime scolded. Chastised, Uryū pushed his spectacles back up his nose and turned his head to look out through the window.


End file.
